Various electrical connector assemblies include terminals which have base sections for securing the terminals in a dielectric housing of the connector assembly. Other portions of the terminals, such as contact means, solder tails, spring contact arms, etc. project from the rigidly secured base sections of the terminals. Such a terminal may be fabricated as a stamped and formed sheet metal component, with the base section of the terminal being forced into a cavity in the dielectric housing. The base section may include barbs along opposite edges thereof for skiving into the material of the housing to rigidly secure the terminal in its cavity.
For instance, these types of terminals are used in recharging and data retrieval apparatus, such as a portable telephone. A hand held phone set is positionable into and removed from a cradle formed by a base unit. The hand held phone set has exposed contact means, and the base unit often has a plurality of spring contact arms exposed thereon for engaging the contact means of the hand held phone set, such as for recharging the batteries thereof. The terminals of the base unit include base sections insertable into cavities in a dielectric housing to secure the terminals thereon, with the spring contact arms projecting from the base sections for engaging the contact means of the hand held phone set. The terminals also may include solder tails for engaging circuit traces on a circuit board within the base unit.
One of the problems with such electrical connector apparatus involves mounting or inserting the terminals into their respective cavities. Insertion tools often are used for inserting the terminals into their cavities, and the insertion forces must be transmitted to the base sections of the terminals which are rigidly secured to the housing. With the spring contact arm and the tail section of a given terminal projecting from the base section thereof, heretofore there has been no area left for an insertion tool to directly engage the base section. Obviously, the spring contact arm is too flexible for receiving insertion forces. When insertion forces are applied by a tool to the tail section of the terminal, too small a surface area often is provided, and either the tail section or other portions of the terminal tend to twist or deform when being inserted.
This invention is directed to solving the problems outlined above and providing a terminal construction of the character described, wherein an insertion tool can directly engage the base section of the terminal to force the base section into its respective mounting cavity in the connector housing.